Apple and Google brands suffer from lack of innovation

Apple and Google corporate brands dropped in an annual survey while Amazon.com Inc maintained the top spot for the third consecutive year.

The annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient poll released on Tuesday said that the electric carmaker Telsa improved its ratings after sending a red Roadster into space.

However, Apple's days in the top ten brands dramatically fell from five to 29th. It is a long way from its glory days in 2016 where it was ranked as number two. Google dropped from eighth to 28th.

The poll, conducted since 1999, surveyed 25,800 US adults from Dec. 11 to Jan. 12 on the reputations of the “most visible” corporate brands.

John Gerzema, CEO of the Harris Poll, told Reuters in an interview that the likely reason Apple and Google fell was that they had not introduced as many attention-grabbing products as they did in past years, such as when Google rolled out free offerings like its Google Docs word processor or Google Maps and Apple’s then CEO Steve Jobs introduced the iPod, iPhone and iPad.

“Google and Apple, at this moment, are in valleys, Gerzema said.“We’re not quite into self-driving cars yet. We do not yet see all the things in artificial intelligence they’re going to do.”

Meanwhile, Amazon.com held on to the No. 1 spot, which it had held for five years with the exception of 2015 when it slipped to No. 2. Gerzema attributed Amazon’s ranking to its expanding footprint in consumers’ lives into areas like groceries via its Whole Foods acquisition.

“He’s a modern-day carnival barker - it’s incredible”, Gerzema said of Musk. “This‘The Right Stuff’ attitude can capture the public’s imagination when every news headline is incredibly negative. They’re filling a void of optimism.”

Facebook's reputation improved in the 2018 study, despite being the target of questions from US lawmakers about the role of social media in Russia’s efforts to influence the U.S. presidential election in 2016. Facebook ranked 51st, its best showing since 2014 when it ranked 38th, the highest the firm ever listed in the poll.

Last place went to Japanese auto parts supplier Takata Corp, whose airbags can explode with too much force and had been linked to at least 22 deaths and hundreds of injuries, prompting the most massive recall in automotive history and forcing Takata and its US unit, TK Holdings into bankruptcy.